Lino Prints

Today I introduced the children to lino prints. We used Micador easy cut lino available in Masters DIY store. It's way easier to cut than the traditional stuff and you can use both sides of it. The disadvantage of it being less stiff is that it sometimes doesn't stay flat whilst its being cut. We used a lino tool with interchangeable blades.

We did not intend to make pictures today; the children just experimented with the tools and process. Here you can see the children using a bench hook to keep the lino steady as they cut. This means hands can be kept well away from the blade. You can easily make one from 3 pieces of wood screwed together.

The children weren't particularly into the project until we had pulled the first print. I love that excitement of not really knowing what you are going to get. After they had seen how the process worked and could relate the cutting to the print they loved every minute of it. R concentrated for over an hour. We used water based printing inks from an educational supplier.

L inks up the lino to pull another yellow print

Once we had made several prints in one colour we cut into the block some more before printing another colour directly on top. This is called reduction printing. This is R's print with 2 colour layers.

We cut away more lino before pulling a third colour print. I had time to do only one colour on mine (top of page).

3 colour reduction print by R

3 colour reduction print by L

Later in the week we plan to make some figurative pieces with lino prints.